The problem
Wholesaler, lab, cremation and equipment invoices arrive by post and email and get typed into the accounts at month end. If a practice gets 120 invoices a month and keying each one takes 4 minutes, that's 480 minutes, 8 hours a month.
What the AI does
Dext captures receipts and supplier invoices from a phone, email or WhatsApp, reads the details and sends them to accounting software such as Xero for you to approve. Emailed invoices are forwarded to Dext and paper ones are photographed on arrival. The practice manager checks each one and publishes it, and the bookkeeper sees the bills in Xero.
A worked example
A 2-vet practice in Lancashire already uses Xero Grow and gets about 120 supplier invoices a month from its wholesaler, lab, cremation service and others. The practice manager forwards emailed invoices to Dext and photographs paper ones the day they arrive.
Before
120 invoices keyed in at 4 minutes each: 8 hours a month
After
About 1 minute each to check and publish: 2 hours a month
What it's worth
About $160£120€143A$230C$226 a month of practice manager time saved, against about $32£24€29A$46C$45 to $40£30€36A$58C$56 for Dext. That's 3 minutes saved on each of 120 invoices, 6 hours, at an assumed $27£20€24A$38C$38 an hour; Xero is already paid for.
How to set it up
- Check Dext's pricing: the default business plan of 250 documents and 5 users was $32.15£24.17€28.76A$46.41C$45.44 a month billed yearly ($386£290€345A$557C$545), excluding VAT; monthly billing costs more.
- Connect Dext to Xero and set the usual category for each main supplier, such as drugs, lab fees and cremation.
- Forward supplier invoice emails to Dext and photograph paper invoices the day they arrive.
- Check each extracted bill against the invoice before publishing, especially the VAT and the total.
- Reconcile each wholesaler statement against Xero every month.
What goes wrong
- Xero Ignite allows only 10 bills a month, so 120 supplier bills needs Grow at $52£39€46A$75C$73 or above. The example practice already has it.
- If you want every line of a long wholesaler invoice read, line item extraction is an extra from $21.95£16.50€19.63A$31.68C$31.02 a month.
- Blurred photos and unusual layouts get misread. The person who publishes each bill is responsible for checking it.
- Some invoices, such as individual cremations, name an owner. That's personal data, so limit who can see them in Dext and Xero.